I know from experience that only candidates from a certain university fit into my team. Can I screen out CVs from applicants who did not attend this university?

No TV show captures the dogma of hiring from only one university quite like US legal drama Suits. The (fictional) lawyers, Harvard graduates all, are exclusive in their recruitment practices until the arrival of a prodigious new associate who has, in fact, not graduated at all. This week's question asks whether this exclusive approach is lawful and – just as importantly – sensible.

Discrimination against certain characteristics, such as age, disability or race, is unlawful. Educational background is not one of these characteristics and so selection based upon university choice is not at first glance prohibited; however, you must think about whether recruiting from a single university has the effect of being discriminatory in practice.

For example, if you are hiring only from a UK university, does this have the practical effect of disadvantaging applicants of other nationalities? If you are hiring from a university which has a small population of mature students, does this have the practical effect of disadvantaging older applicants?

It is possible that by accepting candidates only from one university, your recruitment arrangements are indirectly discriminatory and therefore not permitted. You should examine the policies which this university has in place to prevent discrimination and ensure that its admissions practices do not disadvantage certain applicants, who may then in turn be disadvantaged by your recruitment policy.

You should also consider whether your preference for this particular university is caused by unconscious bias, which may be discriminatory. Psychologists say that we all unconsciously sort people with whom we interact into categories, and it is an instinctive reaction to prefer those categories which are most like ourselves.

A potential result of your decision to select from a particular university is that you may be unconsciously selecting candidates who are similar to you and discriminating against those who are different – particularly if you have sole or primary responsibility for determining the recruitment practice at your company.

There are a range of tests which you can take to determine whether you have unconscious biases, and there is training available which can help identify and overcome any unconscious bias, ensuring that your selection policy is not discriminatory.

Related

It is also important to consider whether your hiring policy hinders social mobility. The previous government identified selective recruitment as a barrier to social mobility, and encouraged employers to seek proactively to ensure non-discrimination in recruitment processes. In particular, widening university recruitment beyond the most selective universities and engaging in school and university-blind recruitment was encouraged.

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, which advises the government on social mobility matters, has recently recommended that recruitment strategies of elite employers be adjusted "in order to attract higher numbers of suitably qualified applicants from a wider range of universities".

While not a legal requirement, such recommendations indicate that it is clearly best practice to employ recruitment strategies which encourage social mobility.

Several law firms have already put this into practice, by implementing "CV blind" interviewing, where an interview panel is not aware of a candidate's university choice, and a number of organisations are assessing academic results in the context of the applicant's social circumstances. The intention of these practices, which encourage a diverse range of applicants for graduate jobs, is to ensure that those with talent do not miss out due to lack of opportunity.

Kathleen Healy is a partner and Rosamund Wood is an associate in the employment, pensions and benefits team at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer